Quest for the King (10 page)

Kurt colored. "I didn't mention the column, because I didn't want
you to think I was crazy."

"It is not given to humans to see into the spiritual realms every
moment," Alleophaz replied. "But do you know what you are doing?"

"Yes, my lord, I do."

Wesley looked at his brother, amazed. He could see that Kurt was
not being brash or cocky. He was both excited and very sure about
something. Evidently Alleophaz was satisfied. "Very well, lead us
along the trail you found."

In no time they repacked the panniers, mounted, and turned back
on their way.

Then, fifteen yards beyond the turn in the road, Kurt directed his
horse between a tree and bush, doubling back in the direction of the
cliff. For several yards they ascended steeply, and in the end were
forced to dismount. The narrow path followed the top of the rock face
for several yards so that they looked down at the rushing water below.
Then Kurt led them sharply away from the river along a more level
area so that they could ride again among the trees.

Alleophaz was immediately behind him and watching him keenly.
The trail seemed hardly a trail, but Kurt was looking everywhere about
him, not at the trail, but as though he were searching for something.
Sometimes he looked back, a puzzled expression on his face. Then
he would pause, look forward and, "Ah-there it is!" they would hear
him mutter, as he started ahead once more.

"He obviously knows what he is looking for," Alleophaz murmured.

It was very interesting to watch Kurt. Even when the trail was clear
and easy to follow, Kurt's eyes were everywhere. Mostly he looked
ahead, but sometimes he would stop suddenly, look around, say,
"Hm," nod his head, and almost double back, turning around a tree
and following an almost invisible trail for a little while. The trail would
join a wider one going in the same direction, and for a few minutes
it would be plain sailing.

Once he stopped, looking very puzzled. "I think we may have to go
back a bit. Just a second, I'll dismount and walk back." Then, after a
few yards, he nodded. "No, I was right. We'll just have to go on a bit."
Then fifteen yards later-"Oh, there it is! I see it now."

"There what is?" Wesley asked wonderingly.

"I think he must mean the column of smoke," Lisa replied.

"No. You could be right, but I don't think so. If you watch him
carefully he seems to be examining the larger, older trees, and also
the rocks that jut out of the ground all over the place. It's like he's
reading clues-but I can't see what it is he's seeing."

After a few moments Lisa said, "Gerachti doesn't seem to share our
confidence. I can't tell what he's saying to Belak back there, but he
doesn't sound very pleased."

"Gerachti's a pain in the neck!" Wesley was indignant. "I don't like
the guy, and I don't see why Alleophaz is so taken with him."

A moment later Gerachti crowded past Wesley and Lisa and made
his way to Alleophaz. "My lord," they heard him say, "the child does
not have any idea what he is doing! He is following a haphazard
series of animal trails, purely according to his own fancies."

"Not at all, Gerachti!" said Alleophaz. "You have been too busy grumbling when you should have been observing. One can learn
things from a child, you know. He is actually taking a great deal of
care, and knows exactly what he is after. I notice that he focuses most
on rocks and older trees. It could be the moss on the trees, but I doubt
it because he keeps doubling back."

"Yes, that is just the point. We are probably going in circles."

"Not in the least. On the whole we are following a consistent
course. In spite of the dips we are progressively gaining altitude. In
spite of the twists and turns our general heading remains the same.
It is toward Bamah and may well be by way of the upper road. Have
you been keeping your eye on the sun?"

"I know nothing about celestial navigation."

Alleophaz laughed. "Then do not presume to criticize someone
who is navigating expertly-though I wish I knew how he did it."

Just then a large rock forced the trail to skirt its sides. Kurt stopped
and looked at the rock, smiled broadly, then nodded, and after a
moment turned round a large tree and looked back almost in the
direction that he had just been pursuing. "Yes, that's it," he breathed.
"I think we may have to dismount."

By now Gerachti was back with Belak. They heard him say, "This
is the height of absurdity."

As they followed Kurt round the tree, they saw what he was doing.
A steeply sloping hill, which for the previous hundred yards had risen
precipitously on their right-hand side, was now on their left. An almost invisible trail led upward. The going would be far from easy,
partly because of the steepness of the ascent, and partly because of
the narrowness of the trail.

"Are there no limits to this folly?" Gerachti demanded, furious.

Alleophaz stopped and turned to face him. "Stop behaving like a
child! In Risgah, when I was looking for the three children I saw in
my-whatever it was that happened to me-you insisted on hiring the
three men. Perhaps it was as well you did, or we may never have met
the children. These are the children. And they are guided by the same
being who addressed me nearly two years ago. They know more about what we are doing than you or Belak or myself. Get rid of your absurd
pride. It will precede a personal catastrophe if you do not."

Gerachti stared back at him, his lips pressed tightly together. Then
he turned to Belak and muttered something.

"Please, Gerachti, please!" they heard Belak half whisper, half
squeal.

For nearly half an hour they labored up the steep incline, and
finally emerged onto a knife-edge ridge, just wide enough for them
to mount and ride. There was no sense of height. Tall trees rose above
their heads from the slopes on either side, giving them a sense of
security. The trail led them along a meadow which broadened steadily, and for about three hours they hardly changed direction at all.
Then, to their surprise, they saw a roadway curving out of a wood to
join the direction in which their trail led. It was about six feet across,
muddy, and bore the marks of horses' hooves.

Gerachti seemed pleased. He looked at Kurt. "Congratulations,
young sir. You seem to have done better than I thought. Now we shall
be able to follow the upper road."

Kurt looked startled. "No-I'm afraid not. We're going to have to
descend again."

"Because it's the way we're supposed to go."

There was a long pause. Finally Gerachti said, "Well, it is not the
way Belak and I will go. With your permission, my lord, we will take
one of the pack horses and meet up witliyou in Bamah. I am grateful
to have come this far with you, but I-"

"But you will proceed alone. Belak and the pack horses will stay
with us," Alleophaz said quietly but firmly.

Gerachti's began to tremble, but with rage rather than fear. Then,
in a husky voice he said, "Very good, my lord, may it go well with you
all." He turned, not in the direction of Anthropos and of Bamah, but
of Risgah-the port from which the three men had come. He spurred
his horse to a gallop, and they watched him disappear along the road
into the wood.

"Shall I continue, my lord?" Kurt asked eventually.

Alleophaz sighed. "Yes, we may as well. Lead on until we come
across a spring, and we will stop for a drink"

They soon found one, and rested awhile after they had drunk from
it, having first watered the horses and mules. They also splashed water
over themselves.

The summer evening light was slowly fading.

"Have you thought how we shall spend the night?" Alleophaz
asked. "We do have bedrolls."

"I suspect Gaal has a place for us to sleep-perhaps even a meal,"
Kurt said. "Maybe we'll find a Gaal tree. Uncle John told us about
them. They're absolutely amazing." His eyes were sparkling and there
was merriment playing around his mouth. Clearly his mood was buoyant.

Alleophaz said, "I gather from one of Kurt's remarks that you children have experience in caring for horses, as well as in riding them
and harnessing."

"Yes, my lord," Wesley said.

"Very sensible. I think all children of your own station in life should
be taught things of that sort. Tell me, for one gold Anthropos crown
a day for each of you, would you consider taking care of the horses?"

"My lord, you cannot expect children of this sort to act as our
servants!" Belak sounded distressed.

"No, I agree. But that is not what I intended. I doubt they have
money with them, and they look like children who are accustomed to
having plenty!"

"If only he knew!" Wes thought.

"What I am suggesting is that I provide them with a little pocket
money, but that I would appreciate it if they would do something you
or I do not know how to do. In any case-it is for them to decide."

"It's very generous of you," Wesley said. "We'll be delighted to do
whatever we can, won't we, guys?"

The other two nodded. "Sure!" Kurt said.

Suddenly there came the sound of something or someone crashing through the wood toward them from above. Alleophaz leaped to his
feet, but relaxed as Gerachti collapsed pale and panting before them.

"Thank the heavens I found you!" he cried. "We are hunted!
Armed soldiers patrol the high road, soldiers from Anthropos-and
they seek us."

"Us?"

" 'Six humans with six horses and two pack animals' is all they
knew. Their magicians have discovered us, and they believe our presence is a threat to the royal house."

"We seem to be getting a warmer welcome than we anticipated,"
Alleophaz said. "Tell us more. What happened to you?"

"Soon after I left you I saw spears glinting in the distance-a group
of marching men. I took my horse into the trees, tied it, and returned
to hide near the road. But next I heard the sound of a horse's hooves
from the direction of Bamah. Then a lone officer stopped in front of
me, dismounted, and sat down on the bank at the far side of the road.
"The platoon on foot stopped in front of the officer.

" `Seen anything?' he asked them.

" 'No, sir!' the sergeant replied. `However, we entered Risgah to
learn if there was gossip. There was. We learned that three men and
three helpers from Risgah are coming, all mounted and with two pack
mules. Apparently the party took the lower road.'

" `So! Excellent! Now we know what to do,' the officer replied.
`Return at once to Risgah, and offer a reward of one hundred gold
crowns for the capture of these men. At least one section of the low
road, we understand, is washed out and impassable. That means that
either they will return to Risgah and follow this road, or else they will
perish in the forest. You are to return to Risgah and look out for them.
Chain them and manacle them when you find them.

" 'I am told there is only one route in the forest itself that gets you
safely to Bamah. We know the exit point and have hidden a patrol
there. But no living person knows the path, so we hardly expect them
to emerge from it. What with bogs to suffocate men, and cliffs to fall
over, and trails that lead you in circles until you die of starvation hardly anyone who enters it survives. Your orders are not to enter it
under any circumstances.' "

Gerachti continued, "My lord, once they left I came back to warn
you. There is unearthly power abroad-this is no place for us! Let us
abandon this foolish quest and return to Risgah to take ship home!"

"And be arrested in Risgah by this patrol?" responded Alleophaz.
"Many people in Risgah know us. We can hardly stay there unnoticed,
and we might have to wait weeks for a ship. Remember, Anthropos
and Playsion have a military alliance at present. Even if the soldiers
fail to spot us, there are many citizens who would turn us in for a
reward."

"Then what does my lord propose?"

"I propose, provided our guides are willing to proceed, to do what
the being in my vision told me to do."

"But in Bamah we are in even greater danger."

"Possibly. But remember, I bear letters from our own sovereign. Manacles do not attract me, and we may well be arrested, but if so I
would prefer to be arrested as close to Bamah as possible. Remember
also that trade with our own country, Glason, is of very great advantage to Anthropos. The letters I bear propose an extension of our
trade agreements, something, I imagine, that the Anthropos sovereign
will leap at. We may find ourselves highly honored guests."

Gerachti sighed. "I hope so. But what of the perils in the forest?"

"So far we have done very well. For the moment I prefer the forest,
with all its perils, to marching manacled and in chains along a highway."

Soon they were on their way again. For two hours Kurt led them
obliquely downward, still moving in the direction of Bamah, but zigzagging for two hours in the waning light. Suddenly he stopped beside
a closely placed group of poplars and spruce trees. "Listen!" he said.
"I can hear the river." A smile broke over his face. "We're almost
there." And, changing directions a little to the right, he led them past
the trees and directly downhill.

Soon they had to dismount. They found themselves descending into a dell covered with moss and graceful ferns. The trees were more
widely spaced. Falling in a series of tiny waterfalls, a stream on their
right ran downhill from a spring at the head of the dell, then plunged
over a precipice ten yards to their left. The path led them by steppingstones across the stream, where they saw a small cabin built curiously
into the side of the hill. There was a railed balcony in front of it.
Through the trees they could just see a glimpse of the river and the
low road.

"Pleasant, but quite useless," Gerachti sneered, referring to the hut.

"We have not yet seen the inside," Belak responded brightly.